Passenger dies in Qns. crash
A drunken speeding driver killed a woman riding in his BMW when he crashed through a metal fence at 97 mph and slammed into a wooded area in Queens, prosecutors said Sunday.
Nicholas Thompson, 35, was barreling east on Rockaway Blvd. near the Nassau County border about 6:50 p.m. on Saturday when he blasted by an unmarked NYPD vehicle, forcing the cops to swerve out of his way, prosecutors said.
He then lost control and veered off the road, crashing into a fence and trees, prosecutors said.
His passenger, 32-year-old Jolenna Favor of Far Rockaway, Queens, suffered severe head and body trauma.
Medics found her in the passenger seat and pronounced her dead at the scene. The car’s crash data recorder showed Thompson was going 97 mph five seconds before the wreck, prosecutors said.
Thompson, who also lives in Far Rockaway, has a history of drunken driving arrests, and his license was revoked in 2011, police and prosecutors said.
He was arrested in Queens in 2008, and convicted in Nassau County in 2011 and in Chester County, Pa., in 2015, officials said.
“As a result of this defendant’s alleged criminal behavior, a woman’s life has been tragically cut short,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said.
“From the moment the defendant allegedly got behind the wheel of the car, intoxicated and with a revoked license, he was breaking the law and endangering the lives of everyone on the road. He will be held accountable for his alleged actions to the fullest extent of the law.”
The officers in the unmarked car saw him getting out of the BMW as they approached him.
His eyes were bloodshot and watery, and his breath reeked of booze, prosecutors allege.
He refused to take a blood alcohol test, but admitted he was driving and that his friend was in the passenger seat, prosecutors said.
Thompson was hit with an array of charges after the crash that could land him in prison for 25 years if he’s convicted, including aggravated vehicular homicide, vehicular manslaughter and driving while intoxicated as a repeat offender.
He was awaiting arraignment in Queens Criminal Court.